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With less than 200 days to go until the start of the London 2012 Olympics, the attention of many of the businesses located in the UK's capital city are starting to turn their attention to the logistical challenges posed by hosting the world's largest sporting event.

The long-term concern for Londoners surrounding the Games regarded how the city's transport infrastructure would cope with the stresses of moving millions of people around London over the course of two weeks.

However, a new, perhaps even more terrifying, potential problem has reared its head, with a government report suggesting that the country's telecoms system may be unable to cope with demand to access the internet in certain areas.

The Cabinet Office's official advice, which is detailed in Preparing your Business for the Games report, implores UK firms to help ease demand by pushing the concept of flexible working, which would reduce stress on the telecoms system and on the transport network.

"It is possible that internet services may be slower during the Games or, in very severe cases, there may be dropouts due to an increased number of people accessing the internet," the report reads.

Internet service providers, meanwhile, have been warned that they may be forced to "introduce data caps during peak times to try to spread the loading and give a more equal service to their entire customer base".

This statement has, unsurprisingly, prompted fears that major businesses in the UK - many of which are headquartered just a few miles away from the Olympic stadium - may witness a significant slowdown in productivity.

In preparation for the Games, firms are being urged to conduct feasibility studies into how best to cope during the event. Organisers of the Games have, for their part, already warned that they expect as many as 800,000 spectators and 55,000 athletes, officials, organisers and press to travel to and from the venues every day.

And while this is the third time London has staged the modern Games, having done so before in 1908 and 1948, it is fast becoming apparent that advances in technology are creating new problems for organisers.

Xappr (via MetalCompass)

A new attachment to enhance your smart phone gaming is on the way from the company MetalCompass. The Xappr is a gun shaped attachment that communicates with your phone. It works by placing your smart phone in flexible clamps. Xappr interacts with your phone to give users an enhanced game experience. If the user pivots,  the game screen tilts along with them, creating a more realistic feeling.

This expands gaming capabilities for smart phones and improves on the much lacking shooter games currently available. Augmented reality games can be created using the camera on your phone and create fully interactive environments. One such possibility would be a fully functional laser tag game with friends. The Xapper is due out around June and will cost a paltry $30 USD.

There will be two options when released in spring 2012, the Xappr and Micro-Xappr. Both will be compatible with iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices. Their flagship release title will be an augmented reality deathmatch game called "ATK."

When the Xappr is released, the first use it will have for me will be in a tear down and analysis. What is under the hood is still wrapped in secrecy.

Cabe

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A new report, conducted by IHS iSuppli, has suggested that the semiconductor industry will expand at a slower pace in 2012, largely due to the ongoing economic downturn and sluggish consumer demand. The research body has said that annual revenue for the industry will hit $323 billion, a growth of 3.3 percent year-on year.

Len Jelinek, director and chief analyst of semiconductor manufacturing research at IHS iSuppli, explained that the semiconductor industry is struggling to grow during what has become one of the longest economic downturns in history.

Owing to the fact that consumers in the US, Europe, Japan and China have less disposable income, sales of popular electronic products, such as PCs, laptops and MP3s, are relatively flat.

Indeed, he observed that underwhelming demand for such products has had a residual impact on DRAM, with iSuppli saying that demand for the memory will fall 16.1 percent this year. This is, however, better than the fall seen in 2011, when demand dropped 26.8 percent, iSuppli said.

"There is one huge wild card in DRAM right now and that is industry consolidation," commented Mike Howard, senior principal analyst at iSuppli. He explained that while supply for DRAM will be up around 40 percent this year on a gigabit basis, this rise will take place in a very soft pricing environment.

Demand for NAND, meanwhile, is being undermined by the rise of smartphones and tablets devices. iSuppli said that although there is rising demand for NAND flash, additional factory capacity to meet the demand is likely to lead to oversupply. Also, it should be noted that NAND flash prices have been falling since 2010.

"Despite robust demand coming from the mobile segment, we are forecasting NAND revenue growth of only five percent in 2012 to reflect the risk of oversupply currently plaguing the industry," Dee Nguyen, analyst at iSuppli, commented.

Overall, however, iSuppli would appear to be relatively upbeat about the state of the semiconductor industry, explaining that while revenue growth is likely to be negative in the first half of 2012, it expects to see the shoots of a recovery thereafter.

Graphene sheet concept art from James Hedberg

Why has Graphene not over taken Silicon for use in electronics?

Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms that are only one molecule thick and have extraordinary characteristics. It is stronger than diamonds, can conduct electricity better than copper, and is impenetrable to gases and liquids. The low resistance it offers can create new and better transistors and circuits. The exceptional conductivity allows electrons to flow quicker than the modernly used silicon transistors.

However, with the incredible speed also comes another problem. For transistors to work they have to have a distinct on and off state. Creating a transistor with a consistent off state is difficult due to the great conductivity of the substance. Even with sheets as thin as one molecule electrons often filter through when  in the off state. The band-gap cannot get large enough to be effective.

One man, Konstantin Novoselov, leading a group of researchers is working to create an efficient graphene based transistor. His work on Graphene in 2010 helped him, with colleague Andre Geim, win the Nobel Prize in Physics. Currently they are working to develop a transistor by placing a layer of molybdenum in between two sheets of graphene. The molybdenum is an excellent insulator and stops electrons from passing over while the transistor is in the off state. Further research and experimentation is still needed. Successfully creating a graphene transistor could significantly expand our capabilities with hardware engineering.

Take the 155Ghz Graphene transistor as an example of the possibilities.

Cabe

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